Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games

"Oh yes, there will be blisters."

When I play this game I look back to my entire childhood of sitting in front of me NES and Television and playing my good ole fashioned Track and Field. More than 20 year later I find myself looking at my best times and dumbfounded at some of my results, all of them I couldn't replicate.

Less than 8 seconds for the 100m?! I tried to beat it but forgot my technique and barely managed to qualify for the next round! OI VEY!

And, coincidently, more than 20 years later Beijing 2008 is released and you know what? I enjoyed it.

It's a lot like Track and Field except with a 3D makeover and boy does it look rather nifty. Character models move realistically, unfortunately I was concentrating fully on my controller and missed them out, but thankfully there's a replay and if you just walked into the room where the games being played, you could easily mistake it for the real thing! Well done....except for the lack of diversity with all of the different athletes. I noticed in one Weightlifting competition the guy in First was the same model as the guy in Third. But heck, still looks great.

Audio is...lackluster. I guess they were going for the whole trashtalking atmosphere because when I was playing in single player all you really hear is people announcing your country and the occasional musical number. That being said, with friends over you'll be glad there isn't much audio just because of the atmosphere and PWNING in the 100m! And then hearing your national anthem play while you trashtalk everyone you just beat. It's awesome.

But of course, gameplay is one of the more important parts of these types of games and it does a great job!...Kind of.

I'll get the crap events out of the way. Judo and the Canoe areas. I have to say that with Judo you will have no idea what you're doing. But of course when you do figure out the controls you realize that this mode is absolutely easy if you slam on specific buttons. An absolute shame.

That being said, the Canoe area is complete crap. I can't play it and I just don't enjoy it.

The way it controls is a lot like a tank but not really. It's hard to explain but you have to move the control sticks properly to attempt to get into a gate. But even when you try to get used to the controls they just don't work.

But with those two things aside the rest of the game is really great! It plays a lot like Track and Field in a lot of respects, but still manages to do some innovative things. Instead of relying all on buttons they allow you to use the control stick if you want, and I prefer that. Except for the occasional blister you will get. Let me talk about each section of events to give you an idea about why each of these games are kind of good.

The athletics field is the running events. From 100m to 1500m with the hurdles involved as well. These use the buttons or the control stick. Nothing much different from the Track and Field days, which was a good throw back for people who had the chance to play it. That being said, when you're running the 800m/1500m there's a hint of strategy involved. That coming from the little fatigue meter you have. You can either try to keep the lead, but you lose more stamina, therefore your character is harder to keep going and requires quicker button pressing/faster control stick turning. Or you could stay back a bit, and save energy for the last sprint at the end. Neat idea's make this mode much deeper then it's 8-bit days.

Aquatics are essentially the same as the Athletics, except now you have to time your turning moment with the L or R triggers. It's still really fun.

Diving is a different sport altogether. You get to pick from a list of different dives, ranging from difficulty. When you pick the one you want to do, you set your power meter. The way the power meter works is that it goes back and forth quickly and you press the L or R trigger when it gets to it's highest point. If you get it to it's highest point the diving game is much easier. What the diving game is...well....you have a little circle, and you use your left stick, or right stick (depending on the dive difficulty) to keep the circle in an area for the entire dive. Not that difficult really, really easy. If I made it more confusing, trust me, I got the achievements for it when I first tried it.

Gymnastics requires a lot of button matching/rapid button pressing. Floor exercise requires you to just press the button as your athlete steps on the floor, very easy. Vault uses the rapid pressing from the Athletics with very quick control stick turning to land the dismount, you also have to press the buttons that correspond with jumping to get onto the vault. Parallel bars is rather easy, you jump up and then use the right and left control sticks to aim arrows underneath your athlete's hands to keep them stable. Another easy, yet fun event. Beam is a lot like Floor Exercise except you have to get up on the beam and off the beam by pressing the jump/land button to get on there, another fun event. Uneven bars is essentially DDR on your controller. See the arrow? Press the control stick into that direction. Easy except you also have to watch the right control stick as well, which complicates things a tiny bit. Rings are a lot like swimming except you have to use L and R as well when designated to. Pretty good event.

Shooting events are all fairly good. The shotgun skeet shot is ok, it's not the best but it certaintly isn't the worst. 10m and 25m air pistol are both essentially the same, 10m you try to hit the bullseye, 25m you try to hit as many 10 point shots as possible.

Archery is a fun event, you pull back on the R stick to draw the bow and then aim with the L stick. Adjust to the wind and you'll have it in no time.

Judo, as I mentioned, sucks. Same with the canoe.

Table Tennis is an ok game, requires you to think when you should use some buttons.

Weightlifting is one of my favorite events. You spin the two control sticks in opposite directions and then use the control stick again to jerk the weight's above your head, a unique event and a personal favorite.

Cycling is a lot like athletics but it's more like the 800m, requires strategy. You are constantly changing the leader due to stamina problems until finally you finish the race. A fun little event that requires thinking.

I left the field events last because...well...I forgot about them >_>

Anyways, The high jump is just using the buttons to match up. Pole vault, you use the buttons/sticks to gain enough speed until the game locks your speed. When it locks you press L or R triggers to try and get as high as possible. Long Jump is pretty much the Track and Field game, you press the buttons as fast as possible to gain speed and then aim your angle to go as far as possible. Triple jump is pretty much the same except now you have to press buttons for your Hop Skip and Jump.

Shotput and discus are pretty much the same event. You spin really quickly and aim at the right time. Hammer throw plays a lot like the diving. And javelin plays a lot like the Long jump, you run fast and then adjust your throw. All in all a good compilation.

One of the new modes this game has packed with it is the Olympic mode where you have a team that participates in the Olympics, problem is that they all suck from the get go and slowly improve, which doesn't make much sense considering they're representing their country in these events, they should have at least some sort of experience.

Overall this is a party game. You will have battle scars on your hands, as I type my palm has a huge blister on it, but it's all worth it. Even trying to get achievements requires skill, so when you pop this game in, it's no Avatar. I recommend it for those who have played Track and Field back in the day, it's a good party game and is just fun to play.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 08/14/08

Game Release: Beijing 2008 - The Official Video Game of the Olympic Games (US, 07/08/08)